The Greely boys have dominated in-state this year and were an impressive second at last month's Manchester (N.H.) Invitational. Thursday, the Rangers stared down two of their biggest rivals, Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth, along with nine other teams to win the conference crown for the third year in a row.

"Logan, Sam and Mark ran hard after Alex Moser from York (who set a course record time of 16:08), but he had a great race," said Greely coach David Dowling. "I was pleased with their 3, 4, 5 finish. Humphries, Regan and Sandreuter also ran strong."

The Falmouth boys made history by placing all seven runners in the top 30 for the first time ever at the WMC meet. The Yachtsmen were led by Thomas Edmonds (13th, 17:50.50). Tim Follo (16th, 17:58.50), Eric Hemphill (18th, 18:03.60), John Lake (19th, 18:04) and Conor McGrory (21st, 18:11.20) also scored with Charlie Swerdlow (22nd, 18:11.90) and Henry Briggs (28th, 18:24.40) also taking part.

"The boys' pack was very strong," said Falmouth co-coach Jorma Kurry. "Tom was outstanding and when Tim gets back to full strength, we will be competitive. The top four WMC teams will definitely have some great matchups at the big meets, as always."

"Tom Edmonds came through with a great race," added Falmouth's other co-coach Danny Paul. "We will be battling Cape, York and Greely all the way to states."

"I was pleased with our performance," said Panthers coach Peter Sillin. "We have a young team and we benefit a lot from racing against such challenging competition. Cam has turned into a real team leader this year as our steady No. 1 and Rudy and Brian have made impressive progress since last year. If we stay free of injury, I'm hopeful that we will be able to finish the season on a strong note."

Getting faster

While Cape Elizabeth's juggernaut easily won the girls' race, all five local schools had reason to feel good about their performances.

Greely had the only local top-10 individual, Melissa Jacques, who came in 10th with a time of 21:40.40. Also scoring for the Rangers were Julia Isaacson (23rd, 22:28.22), Marissa Goding (26th, 22:41.80), Emily Christensen (35th, 22:27) and Amanda Stewart (43rd, 23:53.60). Addie Halligan (48th, 24:07) and Sarah Ezzio (49th, 24:15.90) also took part.

"I was very pleased with our fourth place finish, while acknowledging that Falmouth wasn't at full strength," said Dowling. "We knew that Poland would probably be ahead of us, but led by Melissa and the rest of the top five, we were able to stay close and hope to be able to continue to improve to land a spot in the state meet."

"We need to be healthy and strong to compete and hopefully we're heading toward that," said Kurry. "We expect to compete well at regionals and states."

"We are struggling with injuries and colds," Paul added. "We need to stay focused and get healthy to make the state meet. Jenna Mannette ran well in the JV race and may become an important contributor over the next few weeks."

"The girls have come a long way so far this season," said Panthers coach Chris Mazzurco. "Each meet they have focused on a different aspect of their race and the steady improvement has been very encouraging. Maeve Stier continues to lead the time with strong, solid races followed closely by an ever improving core of girls. Several of our top runners sat out the race on Thursday due to sickness or injury, but hopefully will be recovered in time for the regional championships."

Mark your calendar

The regional championships will be held Saturday, Oct. 24 at Twin Brook in Cumberland. The state championship meets will also be held at Twin Brook this year the following Saturday, Oct. 31.

NYA's Cam Regan hit the finish line with the 27th-best individual time at last week's Western Maine Conference boys' cross country race in Falmouth. Falmouth's Henry Briggs was right behind in 28th position.